As I see it, the Bucs are doing everything they can to fill in roster depth to take the best player available. I liked the additions of the two guards from NFC East teams this past week. I still think they will take an inside offensive linemen within the first 3 rounds, but I think they are really setting us up to take a corner, as high as in the first round. It’s still a huge need and we can’t rely on Izien to be a replacement at corner for our starters. The corner position is deep this draft. And I think that’s what we’re going to see picked… 1st or 2nd round.
I meant to also say… I still think edge is our biggest need, but I think we will address that position through free agency or trade. I don’t think Bowles and Licht are hard-headed enough to go into next season with the list of edges we currently have, plus a high draft pick. That will doom them this year.
Corner does make a lot of sense.
Well they've signed two corners. But I don't think other than Whitehead that any of the players we have signed are expected to be starting ideally.
@catherder - I only one corner… and he definitely seemed like depth.
@catherder - I only remember one corner being added… and he definitely seemed like end of the bench depth. But I may have missed another?
The draft will be interesting. I can see a lot of the targets at Edge are going to go before#26. I think the chances for a good CB will be there.
I would LOVE to be wrong.
If we can extend Wirfs, we do have the cap flexibility to bring in a stud FA/Edge - but who’s going to be left (in FA) that can upgrade this defense?
If it’s via trade (ie, Hassan Reddick), you have to have a willing trade partner. If you just dog-stomped that team in a playoff game, on national television, that team may not be so willing.
Hall has starting experience on the boundary and Tavierre Thomas has more experience in the slot than Izien. The team is high on Izien, Merriweather, and Hayes as depth. Bucs could go CB in round 1 if the value is there but I think that with the extra third or even with the 4th round pick they might roll the dice on a CB to develop to have ready to step in next year.
Quite a few of the most recent mocks out there have Latu falling to us (or past us) at #26. And Chop is there as well.
That being said, they've also shown good corners there too.
With that, they have guys like Kneeland, Trice, and Issac in that 2nd round range where we're picking.
So, I'd say it depends on whether Latu falls.
I just listened today’s podcast. Always good and informative. But I don’t think the additions of Hall and Thomas change the urgency for the corner position. We needed depth but we also need top talent at corner. Thomas missed more games than Carlton. And Hall isn’t as good as a healthy Carlton. Too much depth in this draft to pass on an early corner.
I think the safest bet (and the one most everyone agrees on) is that iOL, CB, and EDGE will be 3 of the first 4 picks.
If Bowles continues to run a lot of shallow zone coverage with cover 2 or cover 3 shells over the top those shallow zone concepts then you do not need a high end CB to play in this scheme. That was what Schiano was doing and that was a great misuse of Revis' talent as a m2m corner and what was given up for Revis was too much. So, Davis this past season was clearly out of his element playing off coverage or shallow zone coverage. And then being asked to break and react when he is a press m2m CB along with missing play time.
With that said Bowles does place an emphasis on athletic traits at boundary CB like McCollum and Dean clearly show. Dean was drafted in the third round while McCollum was drafted in the 5th round. Davis, Stewart, and SMB were drafted in the 2nd round so the sweet spot for where Licht like to draft CBs is rounds 2-3. The last time Licht took a CB in round 1 was Hargreaves back in 2016. Other DBs drafted since 2016 are the following: Winfield Jr in round 2, Hayes in round 6, Wilcox in round 7, Edwards in round 3, Whitehead in round 4, and Evans in round 2.
Any time Licht has had extra 2nd or 3rd round pick in a draft he has taken a DB.
@alldaway - hello Alldaway! Thank you. I agree with almost all of this and had some reference to draft picks in my original post but took it out because I didn’t want it to be too long.
i can’t stand the soft zones behind a 6 man rush. I feel we have to be able to run more man schemes against some of the offenses we will see this year. If he throws out zone blitzes against McVay/Shanahan/Reid/Johnson type offenses all year we will see 30+ points against us often. Partly because we don’t have the players to provide a consistent rush with just 4.
So right now we have a defensive back group that can’t play man and an edge group that can’t rush the passer. So we have to blitz and play a soft zone behind it. These young offensive wizards are going to eat Bowles defense alive.
IMO Edge and IOL are the biggest needs.
If the Bucs D can't pressure the QB, it doesn't matter who you have back there in coverage. If the Bucs O can't run the ball and protect Mayfield, going to be a bunch of 3 and outs which will hurt the Bucs D even more.
Then get the CB and RB depth after.
@seekpar - I don’t disagree. For me, edge is our biggest need. We don’t get any better on defense without upgrading. But I think our best opportunity to get better in the draft and with where we’re drafting is at corner over edge. Late first round corners have a better chance of producing earlier… especially with the depth at that position in this draft. Drafting an edge at 26 isn’t going to do anything for us this year.
